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29 years old, and a mess after birth of my Son

by Tanya
(CA)

I'm 29 years old and was diagnosed with a mild case of PCOS several years back. I got pregnant and gave birth to my Son in August of 2008 (c section). 4 months after my Son was born I was a complete disaster.

I was having massive heart papls, could not sleep, terrible anxiety and panic attacks. All my symptoms have gotten better, but not gone away, I have had all my hormones tested and they have come back normal, although I have all the symptoms of being estrogen dominant and lacking progesterone. I went to a specialist 3 months ago, and he agreed that I was lacking progesterone, he prescribed 10% bio identical progesterone cream and I started taking it. Within 3 days I was even worse that I had been after I had my Son. I was pumping so much adrenaline, and it felt as if someone was sitting on my chest, I could not focus or sleep, I was having heart papls. etc.. btw, I have all the symptoms of Adrenal fatigue as well, and the progesterone cream seemed to make things worse.

I had a miscarriage last year, and during the time I was pregnant I felt amazing and normal. (I'm assuming from all the progesterone produced during pregnancy) , but did it just cause bad reactions because I'm so estrogen dominant? should I just take much more until my symptoms go away? I'm just confused... please advise, thank you.

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Oct 05, 2011
 29 years old, and a mess after birth of my Son
by: Wray

Hi Tanya You definitely have severe post natal depression. I'm surprised you weren't given the usual remedy of anti-depressants. Progesterone drops sharply after birth, sending 25% of women into depression, from the baby blues to post natal psychosis. Very large amounts of progesterone are needed, although I've found using Natural Antidepressants with it, the amount doesn't have to be as high. We have more info on our Anxiety page. Dr Dalton would give 2400mg/day to her patients with post natal psychosis. You might like to read this page here. Although you're using a 10% progesterone cream, you don't say how much progesterone you are getting. A 10% cream contains 100mg/ml of cream. I normally recommend 100-200mg/day, but if symptoms are severe this amount will not help. It would have to be 400-500mg/day and over. This means you need to increase the amount of cream you're using to 4-5ml per day. Or maybe you are using this much? Please let me know. The progesterone you were making during pregnancy would have made you feel good. It rises to over 400ng/ml during the third trimester. Unfortunately tests are misleading, as the ratio of progesterone to oestrogen is never checked. This is the critical factor, not the quantity. We've found from Saliva Tests we run that the ratio should be 600:1 and over to feel well. Maybe you could check your results. Progesterone is excellent for adrenal fatigue too. The adrenals first secrete progesterone, which they then convert into cortisol. If stressed they rob other sources, notably ovarian. This then upsets the reproductive system, which stops ovulation, so progesterone levels drop further. By supplementing with progesterone this vicious cycle is stopped.
Take care Wray
Oct 21, 2011
 Thank you
by: Tanya

Wray,
So as of now are you saying to increase my dosage? I was given an original dosage of 4 x daily 1/4 teas. and I felt like a zombie. So I cut it back to 2 times daily, and I felt better, but still had some issues. I felt that since I had started the therapy my adrenals were actually hurting, I could feel them in my back. Im not sure if this was due to progesterone overload or what. My heart palps have also dissapeared (which is fantastic!) and I feel calmer, although the past 2 weeks I have felt anger and lack of patience. I don't know whether to attribute this to PMS (as it is before my period) or because of my excess adrenaline. Do you advise me speaking to my Dr. regarding antidepressents? thank you.

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